GM to Make Electric Version of Chevy Silverado Pickup -- Update
07 April 2021 - 5:55AM
Dow Jones News
By Kimberly Chin
General Motors Co. plans to roll out an electric version of its
Chevy Silverado pickup truck, the latest in its efforts to convert
its global lineup to electric vehicles.
The nation's largest auto maker by sales has set a target date
of 2035 for phasing out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles from
its showrooms globally. GM plans to deliver more than one million
electric vehicles across the world by 2025, the company has
said.
The full-size Chevy Silverado pickup will be designed "from the
ground up" as an electric vehicle, the company said Tuesday. GM
said it would be built at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant, where the
company also intends to make the GMC Hummer EV sport-utility
vehicle and an autonomous vehicle for its Cruise driverless-car
division.
GM estimates the Chevy electric vehicle would have a range of
more than 400 miles on a single charge, roughly matching the range
a Silverado would travel on a single tank of gasoline.
During an appearance at GM's Detroit plant on Tuesday, GM
President Mark Reuss said the electric Silverado would be sold to
individual customers and commercial fleets, which he expects to
drive early demand for plug-in trucks.
The choice of the Detroit plant for manufacturing electric
vehicles solidifies GM's commitment to making its hometown a hub of
future technology amid bets big on driverless and electric
vehicles.
The factory was slated for closure before GM reversed course
with a $3 billion overhaul plan, outlined in a new four-year labor
contract in 2019 that ended a 40-day strike at the company's U.S.
factories by the United Auto Workers. GM said in January the
investment includes $2.2 billion at the factory site and a further
$800 million in supplier investment and other related projects
nearby.
Overall the company said it plans to spend $27 billion through
2025 to build electric and driverless vehicles.
Global auto makers are pouring money into the development of
electric vehicles. While most early entries have been passenger
cars and sport-utility vehicles, legacy car makers such as GM and
Ford Motor Co. are drawing up plans for plug-in versions of their
brawny pickup trucks, their biggest moneymakers.
Ford has said it would begin building an electric F-150 pickup
truck in Dearborn, Mich., next year.
Traditional auto makers likely will face competition from Tesla
Inc. and several startups that also are targeting the
electric-pickup market, including Rivian Automotive, Bollinger
Motors and Lordstown Motors Corp.
GM plans to build a second battery factory in the U.S. as a
joint venture with LG Chem Ltd., The Wall Street Journal reported
last month.
The Biden administration has made transitioning from
gasoline-powered to electric vehicles a cornerstone of its domestic
policy agenda, aiming to use the technology to fight climate change
and create jobs to help cushion the possible loss of some positions
in fossil-fuel industries.
The White House is calling for 500,000 new electric-vehicle
charging stations -- five times the size of the national network
now -- as part of a $174 billion plan to boost the EV industry in
President Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal.
Write to Kimberly Chin at kimberly.chin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 06, 2021 15:40 ET (19:40 GMT)
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